The Five Truths
by DorkQueen
Summary: The most dangerous thing on Earth is not Chaos nor Ma'at—it is Truth. Dark AU, in which the Kanes work for Apophis and Sarah Jacobi was the last and only heroine.


**Disclaimer: I do not own the Kane Chronicles series.**

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1. Julius Kane deliberately caused the death of his wife, Ruby Kane.

When Ruby Faust first met Dr. Julius Kane, she was a dreamy, slightly nerdy girl fresh out of college and searching for two things: a job and a boyfriend.

How could she resist Julius Kane, a charismatic, intelligent young man who offered her both?

It wasn't until years later when Julius confessed he had been dabbling in Egyptian magic—good _and_ evil—and Ruby finally opened her eyes to the darkness in her husband. The gleam in his eye when he talked about freeing the gods wasn't his drive towards righteousness or justice as she initially thought. It was ruthless ambition and deep-rooted mania.

Terrified, she tried to run away, but he struck her down so easily channeling the power of the equally greedy goddess Bast.

The question is, had Dr. Kane ever loved his wife or had he been after her family blood from the beginning?

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2. Sadie's birthday cake exploded from power—the power of Chaos. On Sadie's sixth birthday, the two Kane scions became Apophis' dual hosts.

Dr. Kane knew that the House of Life had been scared of his children from their birth—as they should be. But it was a matter of time before the weak-minded old men would deem Sadie and Carter Kane too powerful to stay together and divide the family.

So, he and his wife taught them as much as they could. Ruby was mostly in charge of their children's education, but Dr. Kane also taught them in secret about Apophis and the power of Chaos.

_Fear carries power, _he told little four-year-old Sadie and six-year-old Carter. _And Apophis is the most feared of them all._

He was pleased that they absorbed the information so easily and readily. There was no doubt his children would be the brightest, most glorious magicians the world would ever know.

On Sadie's sixth birthday, he knew they were ready. Time was running out, the House had already put him on probation and was investigating what it claimed to be acts of treachery.

He put a sleeping spell on Ruby, who he knew was becoming suspicious. Then he summoned the Serpent of Chaos and offered up his children as hosts.

Dual human hosts were rare and dangerous, but the clever Apophis knew that it was a worthy risk. He would have double the usual human ingenuity and energy at his fingertips. Plus, if one of his hosts died, Apophis would still live in the other.

He agreed, completing the bond contract.

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3. Through the Kanes, Apophis carried out his power plays.

Of all the gods, Apophis feared Set the most. The only thing that could oppose chaotic evil was orderly evil. Apophis needed a way to ensure that Set would always be under his command.

_What are you willing to do to help me rise? _he inquired of Julius Kane.

_Anything, _said the man who had sacrificed his own children.

So the Serpent lured the god of evil using the father Kane and possessed one of Set's minions to manipulate the god's plans to complement his own. Through the Kane girl, Apophis learned Set's secret name and with that, crushed him.

Gaining control over the other gods was easy, too easy. Osiris took up the father Kane as his host. The boy Kane, with Apophis' encouragement, gained the love and trust of the girl hosting Nepthys and recruited her to their side.

Isis and Horus tried to take the Kane children—a pity that couldn't happen, as they would discover the children were already hosting Chaos. Apophis thought with thrill at what would happen if he had access to all five of the main gods.

Still, he thought up a devious plan to weaken Isis, Horus, and the group of minor gods who would have opposed him. He sent the Kanes on a quest to revive Ra—not entirely, of course, but just enough to make the other gods fear that they would lose power, throwing them into civil war.

Apophis' next step was to crush the House of Life. Defeating the silly organization the human magicians had built had never been a priority. With the gods in disarray, the humans never stood a chance.

Still, Apophis liked to be thorough. Also, why waste an opportunity to wreck more havoc and show off his own power?

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4. Desjardins and the House of Life were destined to fall.

It wasn't hard for Desjardins to see through the Kanes' deception. After all, it was difficult to fool a man who had nearly lived a thousand years.

Still, the wizened head of the House of Life didn't realize the truth depth of the horror the Kanes had delved into until it was too late. During the battle he had underprepared for, he saw the Kane children merge into an enormous two-faced snake. Surprise and sick fear he hadn't felt in four hundred years struck him immobile as the snake attacked.

Desjardins left behind a single leader: a terrified, inexperienced twenty-year-old woman.

Sarah Jacobi had been blessed—or cursed, depending how you looked at it—with True Sight. She and a few others were the only ones who could see through the Kanes' sticky web of lies.

She tried her best to resist them, but the puny army she had gathered didn't stand a chance. Apophis' army was led by Bast, Anubis, Bes, and Setne and made up of terrifying monsters raised from the Duat by Osiris/Julius Kane. Combined with the raw power of the Kanes and Apophis, her death was inevitable.

Apophis could have demolished the House entirely, but what would be the fun in that? Instead, he installed a puppet House of Life, with Amos Kane at the head.

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5. All of the transcripts were full of lies.

The darkness had fallen as planned. Ma'at had been overturned. Apophis was eternally laughing.

Yet that was not enough.

To put the final touch on their victory, the Kanes ordered a human to document their tale. With their infamous dark humor, they commissioned a story that showed them denouncing Apophis and painting them in the light of the sun, Ra. Apophis approved as the human world was thrown into more confusion.

Geb twisted and turned as the blood began to pile up from wars that would never end. People killed their children, their parents, their neighbors.

The reign of terror had only begun.

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**Author's Note: While reading the Kane Chronicles, I felt like there were many plot holes and half-explained concepts. In each of the books, Rick Riordan includes his own author's note, which said that he couldn't verify the truth of the transcripts sent to him. This made me wonder: what if the narrators were in fact unreliable?**

**And this fanfic sprung up.**


End file.
